It would be too easy - clichéd, even - to say that Lecrae went from the church pulpit to the club.

The Houston-bred rapper's sixth studio album, "Gravity," has effectively sprung him from the confines of the Christian genre. It debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 earlier this month and topped iTunes, moving an impressive 72,000 units. It also took the top spot on the Rap, Christian, Gospel and Independent charts.

But Lecrae, 32, says he's first and foremost a hip-hop artist.

"I think everyone funnels their art through their paradigm and their perspective. Art doesn't have to be used to teach or to preach at people," he says. He now calls Atlanta home (though he still loves Frenchy's Chicken and Shipley Do-Nuts).

"I'm an artist, and my job is to illustrate. It doesn't mean that music can't teach, but I want to focus first and foremost on making good art. I think that's what all the great artists, historically, have done."

Even a cursory listen to "Gravity" reveals an easy, accessible appeal. Lecrae is a skilled, thoughtful rapper and lyricist, and he's assembled a stealth team of guests and producers. The album features BIG K.R.I.T., ace vocals from reality castoffs Mathai ("The Voice") and Ashthon Jones ("American Idol") and production from DJ Khalil (who contributed to Pink's chart-topping "The Truth About Love").

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"There are very few people who actually sell drugs, who actually have millions of dollars to throw in the strip club. But that's what permeates urban radio a lot of times," Lecrae says. "Sometimes it's just good music for people, and even though they don't identify with that lifestyle, they listen to the music.

"You may not believe what I believe, but if the music is good, I would imagine you'd listen. And prayerfully, there's some influence or some inspiration or some enrichment involved in it as well."

Lecrae was introduced to mainstream hip-hop fans via the 2011 BET Hip-Hop Awards Cypher, which spotlights several acts on a single track. Past Cyphers have included Kanye West, Nicki Minaj and Bun B. Previous albums cemented his status as one of the biggest players in Christian hip-hop, and May's "Church Clothes" mixtape was downloaded more than 100,00 times in 48 hours. He releases everything through his own Reach Records, which includes a small roster of Christian hip-hop acts.

"He's helped foster a rabid fan base of listeners who both embrace and are challenged by his admonition to be an unashamed follower of Jesus," says Jason Bellini, a local hip-hop writer also known as Sketch the Journalist. "He's not the first to cross over into the mainstream scene, but he is certainly breaking new ground there."

"I think it was a little bit of a swell. I had my current, faithful fan base and then some new people who were kind of intrigued. I think it just pushed it a little bit over the edge. How far over the edge has been amazing to me," he says.

"I'm intentional, so for me, being recognized is not an end in and of itself. I definitely think of myself as a role model, and I definitely want to be influential. I've intentionally sought a platform to influence people from."

The path to enlightenment was rocky (which often makes for the best music). Lecrae says he was a "classic hedonist" who "chased pleasure at every turn." Drinking and drugs were in the mix, and he moved from Houston to San Diego, Denver and Dallas, where his mother now lives. Things turned around after an invitation to a Bible study, where he encountered young people who looked like him and met his future wife. He eventually graduated from the University of North Texas in Denton.

"Being confronted with how your lifestyle was offensive to God, and yet despite you, he finds you significant enough to die for, that rocked me," he says. "It made sense in a way that it had never made sense before.

"I struggled with what I think a lot of young, ethnic minority men struggle with - 'I know there's more out there for me, but I've never seen a picture of urban masculinity that wasn't full of the gangsterism' or things along those lines. I loved art, and I wanted to be an artist and a musician. But at the same time, the only men I ever looked up to were so much rougher and tougher and bigger and badder than what my ambitions (were). I never even lived up to their level of toughness, and I'm grateful that I didn't because it allowed me to say, 'Man, I'm not so far gone that I can't really take music seriously.'"

"Gravity," then, artfully takes all those life experiences and funnels them through Lecrae's filter. Intensely personal, yes. But persuasive to anyone willing to listen.

"I think I just wanted people to embrace reality for a moment," he says. "I wanted people to stop and think for a second and to just wrestle with problems, wrestle with issues and not run away from them.

"Generally, people just talk about (an) issue and how they don't like it. Rarely do people paint pictures of hope, and that's what I tried to do with this album - really challenging perspective."